Negro Bar State Park (Folsom, California) | historic landmark

USA / California / Folsom / Folsom, California
 state park, historic landmark

www.folsomhistorymuseum.org/1mining_towns.htm
www.stateparks.com/negro_bar.html

Negro Bar was a mining camp, but it was not the lively mining town so often portrayed in motion pictures. Like many other mining camps in 1848, Negro Bar was little more than a cluster of tents and shacks thrown up to shelter men working along the river.

The community of Negro Bar was called "under the hill" after Folsom replaced the old mining camp along the river. Today it is under the water of Lake Natoma. Only the name remains on the opposite side of the river from where African American miners first started mining gold in 1849-1850. Negro Bar State Park is a reminder that a mining camp once bore a similar name.

James Meredith built a store and later a hotel at Negro Bar. A store could have been anything from a tent with a plank laid across two barrels to a rough lean-to with a few shelves. Hotels were usually large dormitories with bunks stacked in tiers against the walls. Almost anything that could serve as shelter for a large number of men was designated as a hotel.
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   38°40'47"N   121°11'5"W

Comments

  • Also dredge tailings.
This article was last modified 5 days ago